Global cost of war reaches $14 trillion :Nigeria among the Big 5

Wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan highlight how half the world is suffering more conflict, while the other half enjoys growing levels of peace

More than $14 trillion (£8.9 trillion) was spent on international conflicts in the past year, according to a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), which found that Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan were responsible for a surge in war deaths.

The spending represents 13% of global GDP and is roughly the combined value of the economies of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Spain and Brazil.

Steve Killelea, IEP Chief Executive, said reducing conflict was one way to help the world's economic recovery.

“If global violence were to decrease by 10% uniformly, an additional $1.43 trillion would effectively be added to the world economy,” he said.

The world is becoming less peaceful, and it's costing the global economy....

— Economics & Peace (@GlobPeaceIndex) June 17, 2015

Published annually since 2008, the Global Peace Index uses 23 indicators and three key themes; “level of safety and security in society”, “the extent of domestic and international conflict” and finally “the degree of militarisation”.

This year saw overall levels of conflict unchanged. However, the picture was uneven around the world, with 86 nations seeing their peace index fall while 76 enjoyed increased peace.

_{Isil fighters driving in vehicles near the central Iraqi city of Tikrit}

The decline was mainly concentrated in the Middle East and Africa. Syria was the most dangerous country closely followed by Iraq and Afghanistan. Libya recorded the biggest deterioration falling 13 places to 149th becoming the 14th least peaceful country whilst Ukraine recorded the second largest with around 6,000 recorded deaths since the start of the Civil War and 1 million people displaced.

Levels of peace in South America also declined in the midst of public protests in Brazil and Mexico as well as a surge in criminal violence in the region.

The report also indicated how those killed in conflicts had risen more than 350 per cent so far this decade, from 49,000 in 2010 to 180,000 in 2014. This occurred amid a 61% increase in terror-related deaths in 2013 with 18,000 people killed. Most of these occurred in just five countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria.

_{A suicide attack in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, earlier this month}

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At the other end of the spectrum, Iceland and Denmark were recorded as the world’s most peaceful nations as Europe in general continued a long-term trend towards greater levels of peace with murder and crime rates at an all-time low.

North America, Europe, Central America, and the Caribbean all showed increases in peace with Sub-Saharan Africa’s score improving as Benin climbed 29 places putting the region ahead of Eurasia, Russia, the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia.

Mr Killelea added: “2014 was marked by two contradictory trends: on the one hand, many countries in the OECD achieved historic levels of peace while on the other, strife-torn nations, especially in the Middle East, became more violent.

"This is a real concern: as these conflicts become even more intractable they then spread terrorism to other states."